And once again, your entire post is in fantasy land of having a skill set that's in high demand! Because times change. Do you pay attention the news? North Dakota went through a massive oil boom for the past 5 years, making overnight millionaires and having thousands of people flock to there for work. People made great money. Business was booming as long as oil prices were at record highs of $80 a barrel. Jobs were plentiful because oil rigging and drilling is a fine skill that takes training and years of experience to master and perfect, and plenty of top notch equipment to do it properly. Oil just dropped below $30 per barrel for the first time in 12 years. Guess which state is leading in unemployment claims for the month of January? Huh, North Dakota... who would have thought! Your whole central argument, collapses in reality. High demand, high skill only matters when the world dictates high skill and high demand. Oil was a central part of world economy for the past 20 years, and in just 6 full months, the price has sent the industry into it's own mini recession. Thousands of workers who were highly skilled, and in demand, are now looking for work elsewhere. But hey, according to you they could just pick up and move! I'm sure Silicon Valley and the demand for the most elite programmers is looking for oil drillers! Low paying jobs, will always be low paying jobs... and most likely populated by people who didn't have the chance to learn high demand skills in life compared to hard knocks survival lessons. Reality son...... use it.